Just as digital disruption was once the biggest threat for established companies across the globe, the rapid rise of uncertainty and volatility in 2020 has created a new paradigm for business \u2014 something we refer to as the \u2018Flexi Economy\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prolonged levels of extreme uncertainty have created new consumer expectations, and those businesses who don\u2019t offer flexibility as a key part of their product will be eclipsed by those that do. No longer are we suffering the social anxiety of FOMO. Ever-changing restrictions and snap lockdowns have created a different social angst \u2014 a fear of making plans. This is highly prevalent amongst future \u201cbooking\u201d purchases like air travel, holiday accommodation, and tickets to events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rapidly changing government guidelines have meant that at any given moment we could no longer travel, dine out, get married, go into the office, or gather in large groups. Our plans were abolished, then re-made. We cancelled and rebooked \u2014 and we soon learned just how elastic our lives could be. We also discovered that many companies didn\u2019t have policies that supported this type of elasticity. Yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has presented businesses with a clear challenge: Flex or Fold. Cancelling plans is disappointing enough but losing money when things change is no longer an acceptable risk for customers to take. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flexibility overhaul.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once a consumer has experienced flexibility in the purchase of a product or service, it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019re going to want to give it up easily, so it\u2019s in the best interests of business owners to run the numbers on what offering total flexibility would look like for them. This could mean relaxing refund policies for reasons additional to pure quality issues (like change of mind or change of circumstances), removing hefty penalties for booking cancellations, waiving of change fees, or simply allowing bookings to be transferred into full credits on future bookings. This is an opportunity cost analysis \u2014 if your competitors are offering these things, how many sales are you missing out on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bring in a third party.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fully overhauling your goods or service offering can seem daunting and thankfully there are many \u201cbolt on\u201d solutions that can bring flexibility to a business\u2019 offering with lower risk. Buy now pay later (BNPL) services are very popular right now and they allow you to provide something to a consumer that wants to pay later, without having to mess about with payment collections or layby services. Providing a mechanism for trade, barter or gifting is also a way to avoid cancellation requests and this can include the provision of resale marketplaces for things like event tickets and the simple ability to change the name on a booking, such as a flight, to someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n